Demountable vehicle body



July 21, 1936.

B. F. FITCH l DEMOUNTABLE VEHICLE BODY Filed March 2, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 b" be ltr:

July 21, B, F F|TCH y DEMOUNTABLE VEHICL E BODY Filed March 2, 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Eig. 6

SWYW V @s @FZ/ZK,

3g, @mi una MM Patented .p July 21;, 1,936

UNiTl-:o STATES PATENT oFFlcE DEMOUNTABLE VEHICLE BODY Benjamin F. Fitch, Motor Terminals Greenwich, Conn., assigner to Company, New York, N.

I'his invention relates to demountable truck bodies or freight containers adapted to be carried interchangeably on a highway truckand another vehicle, especially a railway car. In the inter-city transportation of package freight, it has been found very eiicient to load the freight into demountable bodies, after which such loaded bodies are placed on a highway truck, transported to a rail head, lifted and deposited on suitable anchorages on a railway car. The loaded body is then transported by the railway car to another city, and then transferred to a highway truck for ultimate delivery.

Inthe operation of railway cars, vthere are longitudinal buiiing and tugging strains which tend to shift the load in the bodies or the bodies themselves longitudinally, and may at times become so severe as to cause injury to the contents or to the body, by reason of the inertia impact of the load against the body ends, and may even tear the body loose from the anchorages. To obvlate this difculty it has been proposed to provide the railway car withl yielding buffers which the body may engage. I nd, however, that it is much simpler, and causes less interference with other uses of the railway car, to provide yielding anchorages carried by the demountable body itself,

which may coact with xed anchorages on the railway car.

I have so devised the yielding body-anchorages that they may be located within the floor frame and beneath the floor of the demountable body, and hence, do not restrict vin any manner the carrying capacity of the container or provide objectionable obstructions on the railway car, but are eifective to prevent the transmission of sudden blows from thev lcar to the body. My invention includes this feature broadly and also` the morespecic embodiment thereof illustrated .in the drawings and-hereinafter more fully described.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a side elevation of one of mydemountable bodies resting on a flat car, the car and a lower corner of the body being broken away; Fig. 2 is a horizontal section of the body as indicated, for instance, by the line 2-2 on Fig. 1, looking downward, the floor being partly.

broken away'to show one of my shock-absorbing anchorage devices; Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal section through the shock absorbing anchorage, as indicated Aby the line 3 3 on Fig. 2, but Kon a larger scaleyFig'. 4 is a cross-section of the anchorages as indicated by the line 4-4 on Fig 3; Fig. 5 is a horizontal section through the shock absorbing mounting, as indicated by the line 5-5 on Fig. 3; Fig. `6 is a vertical section similar to Fig.

displaced in the left-hand direction from its ncrmal position consequent upon a right-hand jerk of the car; Fig. 'I is a bottom perspective of one of the anchoring sockets of the body, detached.

InqFig. -1, and also in Fig. 6, A is to be taken as indicating an ordinary railway flat car on which demountable bodies, preferably two or more, may stand in longitudinal alignment; B indicates the body itself, which' may be of my standard construction having a floor frame composed of longitudinal side sills, b, end sills bl, and internal longitudinal and transverse beams, shown in Fig. 2, and some of them designatedV b2. Secured to .such iioor frame are side walls b3 land endwalls b4, each of which are equipped with double-hinged doors b5 and h6. The side and end walls carry a suitable roof b1 andthe body sides are provided with suitably braced load attaching hooks bB by which the body may be lifted for transfer from one vehicle to another. Resting o'n the oor frame within;

My shock absorbing anchorages are mounted beneath such flooring and are secured by members of the floor frame as about to be described.

In the iioor frame, adjacent each corner of the body, I provide a short longitudinal beam I0, parallel with the sides and extending between an end sill and the adjacent transverse floor beam b2, and secured thereto, as by riveted clips I I and I2. I may also provide a gusset plate I3, secured to the side and end sills, and a similar gusset plate I4 secured to the side sill and the cross beam b2. This added beam I0 ispreferably a channel of the same cross-section as the side sill b, which is also a channel, such two channels having their :anges facing each other, as shown in Figs. 2 and 4. Secured to the lower anges of the side sill 'b and the added longitudinal member I Il on their underside are supporting plates I5 and on their undersides, as shown at I1. This provides a xed guideway along the inner edges of the bottom ilanges of the longitudinal members b and I0. Slidably mounted in the guideway above described is the body position member 2U. This device is of the general form shown in Fig. 7, and comprises a hollow casting having a central downwardly facing socket, the wall of which extends first upwardly as a cylinder at 2| and then continues for themost part as a cone 22 with a rounded dometop 23. On the opposite sides oi. the cylindrical portion are integral external longuiding space between tne frame members I5 and I6. Leading longitudinally from the socket described arevupright webs 25ct the casting, which converge near the top and are closed at the top by asubstantially horizontal web 26. Both the upright and horizontal webs terminate at their ends in vertical end webs 21, these end webs being also connected with the socket wall by transverse webs 2B. l

The casting above described provides a downwardly facing socket, conical for its major portion but cylindrical near its bottom, and integrally associated with vertical end walls and lateral guiding ribs. Connected to each end wall of the casting is a rod 30, extending longitudinally from the casting. The rod is shown as screw-threaded into the end wall 21 and locked by a jamb nut 3|. At its distant end the rod is provided with a head 32, which normally freely occupies a considerably larger opening 42 in the transverse wall 4I of a bracket 40, having side flanges 44, Fig. 5, which are riveted tothe webs of the side sill b and the longitudinal beam I0. Slidably vmounted on each rod 30 is a washer 50, bearing against the face of the bracket 40 and provided with a hub 5|. Freely surrounding each rod is a comparatively stili' and strong compression spring B0. the ends of which embrace respectively the hub 5| of the washer'50 and a hub 29 in the outer face of the end wall 2l of the anchorage casting.

' It will be seen from the description given that I-have provided in the floor frame of the body and beneath the oor a socket member 20, which' is slidably guided by the floor frame, but is normally held stationarily in a central position by the two springs 60, as shown in Figs.. l3 and 5.'

The male anchorage carried by therailway car may be of the form shown, describedand claimed in my prior Patent No. 1,814,304 issued July 14:,A

1931 to my assignee, Motor Terminals Company. As there shown, and also as shown in Figs. 1 and' 6 hereof, such ilxed anchorage comprises a plate |00 having a surmounting plate |0I, andl above this a projection |02, the lower portion of which is cylindrical and the upper portion conical. These parts may be one integral casting adapted to be secured to the Vfloor frame of the railway car by bolts or cap screws |03, which pass through the plate portion |00, but have their' heads lower than the top plane of the plate pormaintain the socket member 20 normally in a fixed position, so that the body may be lowered.

onto a railway car and positioned to have the sockets readily register with the xed projections I02. Any slight inaccuracy in the lowering isv provided' for by the conical ends ofthe projections, which operate to cam the body laterally or longitudinally or both, so that it comes to a denite position with the cylindrical portions of the body vsockets embracing the cylindricall portions of .the xed projections. l

Now in the operation of the train, if a severe tugging strain is given to the car, as for instance, in taking up slack in starting, .the xed positioners on the car simplyv carry the socket members on the body in the direction of movement of the car further compressing 'the springs in ad.-

ltuch displacement the highly compressed springs 4 and'1|, in the end sill a pair oi.'

reacting will restore the body to normal position. A severe bufng strain will, of course, produce a similar result but in the opposite direction, compressing the other springs 60 and relieving the springs on the opposite sides. 5

.The displacement of the socket is limited by the possible compression of the springs l60, Fig. 6,

showing the right-hand spring completely compressed. In this movement thehead 32 of the rod 30 on the other side passes out of the opening 42 of the bracket 40, but carries the washer I with it as shown in Fig. Gand thus maintains that spring 60 in normal condition. This openings 42 are made large enough to allow some sagging of the rods 30 without'danger of the l5 head of the rod striking the bracket 40 when the device .returns to normal position.

It will be seen that my shock absorbing mounting of the body anchorages is entirely in an idle space within the floor frame of the body and 20 beneath the floor; that it is effective to hold the anchorages in fixed position for normal usage` While the body is being located on the vehicle, but is also eiective to allow a relative yielding between the vehicle and container in case of ab- A5 normal 'longitudinal strains, thus protecting both the load and the container itself, the displacement of the body being thereafter automatically rectled by the reaction of the compressed springs. 30 In assembling the shock-absorbing parts,v the brackets 40 and the longitudinal guides I5 and I6 may be riveted in place at the time the floor frame is constructed. The socket casting may be passed downwardly between one end oi the guide and the adjacent bracket and then shoved longitudinally with its guiding ribs in the xed guiding spaces; then the springs and washers may be put into place, after which the rods may be located within the washers `and springs 40 and screwed into the wall of the socket member. Finally, the locking nuts may be passed upwardly through the open lower end of the socket and put in, place on the inwardly projecting ends of the rods. 45 To simplify the assem lage of the parts, as well as to enable easy replacement of a spring, l should one, become broken, I form openings 'I0 bI and the cross-beam bzgwnlcn align with the rods an. The rod may so be readily passed into place through the corresponding opening, the locking nut being deltached. The angular formation of the head 32 of the rod enables the application of a suitable wrench to. screw the rod in or out of the socket casting, as the ca se maybe. A In addition to the four positiomng members in the four corners of the body, I prefer to mount positioning members intermediately which are in the central region of the body meas- -ured longitudinally, but preferably set in from the sid'es, as indicated at 20a, -1iig.2. Such additional members may be mounted between structural 'beams 80, secured to the .djacent cross members of the :door frame. -The construction 6 5 of the shock absorbing mounting itselfk will be the same as that described for the corner mountings.

The intermediate anchorages are/designed to prevent any possible displacement of the body if there should be such a vertical jolt as would litt the body at one end or the other above the vehicle projection sumciently tov cause the sockets at that end to clear the projections. In case of such a jolt, anchorages at the other end would 75 formthe fulcrum about which the body would rise-` Y and the centrally located anchorages would re- Aable anchorages within the body reduces the ac- 'curacy necessary in the longitudinal spacing of the fixed anchorages on the vehicle, since if the presentation is accurate enough so that the xed anchorages enter the sockets at all, the springs allow suicient longitudinal shifting to enable an eiective seating. This feature occasionally becomes of use if there is a stretching or buckling of the vehicle due to collisions or impact, or if the anchorages -thereon become displaced, due to impact against the anchorages themselves during transit of other forms of freight on the vehicle, With the shock absorbers on the body, this emergency adaptation is available for both the railway car and the truck chassis.

I claim:

1. In combination, a vehicle having a set of positioning device's thereon, a demountable freight Icontainer having aset of positioning devices on its base adapted to detachably mate with the aforesaid devices of the vehicle when the container is placed thereon, one set of devices having guides permitting parallel relative movement of the guided devices in the direction of travel of the vehicle, yielding means Oppositely bearing on the guided positioning devices in said direction of travel of the vehicle, said yielding means per- .mittingmovement of the container on the vehicle and tending to return the container toward a predetermined position after each movement, and positive restraining means associated with the yielding means and preventing the same from moving the guided positioning devices beyond mating position with respect to the other set of positioning devices.

2. In combination, a vehicle having a set of positioning devices thereon, a freight container demountably carried on the vehicle and having a set of positioning devicesl respectively arranged,

to mate-with the said devices of the vehicle, one

set comprising vertical sockets and .the other vertical projections adapted to enter the sockets, guides for one set of devices extending longitudinally of the direction of travel of the vehicle, oppositely acting spring means operatively connected with guided positioning devices to absorb shock to the container by permitting it to move on the vehicle, in the direction of extent of the guides, and positive restraining means for the spring means preventing the latter from moving the guided devices in either direction beyond centered position with respectto the cooperating positioningdevices.

3. A demountable freight container adapted to be removably positioned on a supporting vehicle having a set of xed positioning devices thereon, a set of movable .positioning devices on the base of said container adapted to detachably mate with the aforesaid' devices of such vehicle when the container is placed thereon, buffer spring means reacting on the container and operatively bearing on the positioning devices thereof in opposite directions parallel to the movement of the container when carried on the vehicle. and positive restraining means associated with the spring means and acting thereon to prevent the same from moving the positioning devices of the container beyond mating position with respect to the positioning devices of the vehicle.

BENJAMIN F. FITCH. 

